Vjenceslav Novak

Who was Vjenceslav Novak?

Vjenceslav Novak was a Croatian Realist writer and dramatist.

He was born into an emigrant Czech family, of which his mother was from an emigrant Bavarian family. He was the most successful Croatian realist writer and was known as the Croatian Balzac. He finished elementary and middle school in Senj and Gospić. He also worked as a teacher in Senj for some time.

He entered into literature in 1881 with the narrative Maca. He wrote seven novels. He published thirty narratives. Apart from stories he also wrote poetry, Feuilleton, dramatic works, reviews, critiques and musical arrangements.

He had a large family, suffered from tuberculosis, fought poverty, and during this period of his life was an ordinary writer of that time. He was a novelist, narrator, critic and translator and worked right up until his death in 1905. He started out as a Romantic story-teller and ended as a writer of modern psychological poetry with occult themes.